News of the Day From Across the Globe

Chronicle News Services

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, February 7, 2012

1 Romania government falls: Romania's government collapsed Monday after weeks of protests against austerity measures, the latest debt-stricken government in Europe to fall in the face of rising public anger over biting cuts. Emil Boc, who had been prime minister since 2008, said he was resigning "to defuse political and social tension." Thousands of Romanians took to the streets in January to protest salary cuts, higher taxes and the widespread perception that the government was not interested in the public's hardships in this nation of 22 million.

2 Mass killer: The right-wing extremist who has admitted killing 77 people in Norway's worst peacetime massacre told a court Monday that he deserves a medal of honor for the bloodshed and demanded to be set free. Anders Behring Breivik smirked as he was led into the Oslo district court for his last scheduled detention hearing before the trial starts in April.

3 More self-immolations: Three Tibetan livestock herders in China's Sichuan province have set themselves on fire to protest what they saw as political and religious repression at the hands of Chinese authorities, according to a Tibetan rights group. If confirmed, the latest cases in a remote village in Seda County would bring the total self-immolations over the past year to 19, an unprecedented wave of self-inflicted violence among the tiny ethnic minority. They were also apparently the first by lay people, rather than current or former members of the clergy.

President Trump addresses nation after mass shooting at Florida SchoolWhite House

4 Radical cleric: A British appeals court on Monday ordered the government to release on bail a radical Muslim cleric who had been detained as a threat to national security for much of the past decade. Abu Qatada, whose real name is Omar Mahmoud Mohammed Othman, could walk free within a week following the ruling by Judge John Mittings of the Special Immigration Appeals Court in London. Qatada, a 51-year-old Jordanian, arrived in Britain seeking asylum in 1993. He was arrested in 2002 on suspicion of inciting terrorism under antiterror laws imposed after the Sept. 11 attacks that authorized the detention of those suspected of conspiring in or supporting terrorism.

5 Dam burst: A dam in southern Bulgaria burst Monday after days of heavy rain, sending an 8-foot-high torrent surging through a village along the Greek border. The disaster brought the region's toll from flooding to eight dead, 10 missing. The dam on the Ivanovo Reservoir collapsed, flooding 700 houses in the village of Bisser.

6 Adrift fisherman: Puerto Rican fisherman Jose Luis Mendez spent nearly three weeks and 1,000 miles adrift in the Caribbean, surviving on raw fish and trapped rainwater, before reaching the Colombian island of San Andres. The doctor who treated him said he is in good health.

7 Putrid goop: Indonesia has another bizarre way to keep commuters off the roofs of trains: Swat them with brooms drenched in putrid goop. Indonesia has tried just about everything to keep passengers from clamoring atop trains that crisscross its main island of Java: spraying them with paint guns, calling in sniffer dogs and asking for help from Muslim clerics. Hundreds have clambered to the roofs in the past because they want to escape overcrowded carriages, can't afford the price of a ticket, or, simply, for fun. But dozens are killed or injured every year, falling off the train or being electrocuted by the power lines above.